Vigilante

Vigilante

A vigilante is a person who ignores due process of law and enacts their own form of justice in response to a perception of insufficient response by the authorities. Several groups and individuals have been labeled as vigilantes by various historians and media. Vigilantes have been central to several creative fictional works and are often depicted as being heroes and retaliatory against wrongdoers.

Etymology

The term vigilante is Spanish and Portuguese for "watchman" or "watcher, ultimately from Latin "vigilantem"- the present participle of "vigilare" (to watch). Its etymology is closely related to (though its meaning very different from) that of the term vigilance. Note that the term vigilantism is a derivative of vigilante, not of vigilant or vigilance. The term vigilante was introduced into English from the northeast United States. Vigilantism is generally frowned upon by official agencies (who would otherwise encourage vigilance on the part of citizens), especially when it gives way to criminal behavior on the part of the vigilante.
Often seen in rapidly growing western towns, citizens sometimes choose vigilantism, capturing suspected criminals and punishing them without a trial.

Vigilante behavior

An impetus of vigilant behavior must exist to facilitate a subjective definition of vigilantism.

"Vigilante justice" is sometimes spurred on by the perception that criminal punishment is insufficient or nonexistent to the crime. Some people see their governments as ineffective in enforcing the law; thus, such individuals fulfill the like-minded wishes of the community. In other instances, a person may choose a role of vigilante as a result of personal experience as opposed to a social demand. Most significantly, some vigilantes specifically target authoritarian entities such as government.
Persons seen as "escaping from the law" or "above the law" are sometimes the targets of vigilantism. It may target persons or organizations involved in illegal activities in general or it may be aimed against a specific group or type of activity, e.g. police corruption. Other times, governmental corruption is the prime target of vigilante freedom fighters.

Vigilante behavior may differ in degree of violence. In some cases vigilantes may assault targets verbally, terrorize victims, perform inhumane acts, or may exhibit no violence at all, choosing other means of pressuring the target. Anyone who defies government and institution to further justice can be considered a vigilante, and thus violence is not a necessary criterion.

History

Vigilantism and the vigilante ethos existed long before the word vigilante was introduced into the English language. There are conceptual and psychological parallels between the Dark Age and medieval aristocratic custom of private war or vendetta and the modern vigilante philosophy. Recourse to personal vengeance and duelling was considered a class privilege of the sword-bearing aristocracy before the formation of the modern centralized liberal-bureaucratic nation-state (see Marc Bloch, trans. L. A. Manyon, Feudal Society, Vol. I, 1965, p. 127). In addition, sociologists have also posited a close and complex relationship between vigilantism and the phenomena of tyrannicide and rebellion.

In the Western literary and cultural tradition, characteristics of vigilantism have often been noted in folkloric heroes and legendary outlaws (e.g., Robin Hood). Vigilantism in literature, folklore and legend is deeply connected to the fundamental issues of morality, the nature of justice, the limits of bureaucratic authority and the ethical function of legitimate governance.

During medieval times, punishment of felons was sometimes exercised by such secret societies as the courts of the Vehm (cf. the medieval Sicilian Vendicatori and the Beati Paoli), a type of early vigilante organization, which became extremely powerful in Westphalian Germany during the 15th century.

Colonial era

Formally-defined vigilantism arose in the early Americancolonies. In these instances, the line between "taking the law into one's own hands," and rebellion or tyrannicide (to destroy an abusive corruption of a legitimate government and vindicate moral ends) was not clear.

In the aftermath of the Civil War and the South's defeat, vigilante secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan, which hid behind masks and robes, and the Knights of the White Camellia, emerged, using violence and intimidation to continue an insurgent war, enforce white supremacy against blacks, and to intimidate white Republicans and Freedmen's Bureau agents. With state and Federal enforcement, violent activity from these groups began to taper off until dissolution in 1871.

20th century

Formed in 1977, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been increasingly active against whaling and fishing vessels which they see as violating international laws, regulations and treaties, particularly where whaling is concerned. It endorses an active policy of scuttling fishing and whaling vessels while in harbor, and ramming and sinking vessels engaged in the killing of whales. A tally on the side of the Sea Shepherd vessel RV Farley Mowat displays the ten whaling vessels (referred to as "Pirates" by the society) sent to the bottom by Sea Shepherds:

1979 – the whaler Sierra rammed and sunk in Portugal;

1980 – the whalers Isba I and Isba II sunk in Vigo, Spain;

1980 – the whalers Susan and Theresa sunk in South Africa;

1981 – the whaling ships Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 sunk in Iceland;

1992 – the whaler Nybraena sunk in Norway;

1994 – the whaler Senet sunk in Norway;

1998 – the whaler Morild sunk in Norway.

Founded in 1979 in New York City, the Guardian Angels is a recognized crime fighting organization that now has chapters in many other cities. It has sometimes been incorrectly called a vigilante organization. Safety Patrol members are instructed to call police, are trained in basic first aid, CPR, law, conflict resolution, communication, and basic martial arts, and are prohibited from carrying weapons.

Recognized since the 1980s, Sombra Negra or "Black Shadow" of El Salvador is a group of mostly retired police officers and military personnel whose sole duty is to cleanse the country of "impure" social elements. Along with several other organizations, Sombra Negra are a remnant of the death squads from the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1981, a resident of the rural town Skidmore, Missouri fatally shot town bully Ken McElroy in broad daylight after years of crimes without any punishment. Forty five people witnessed the shooting, but everybody kept quiet when it came time to identify the shooter.

In 1984, Bernhard Goetz entered a subway train in New York and was surrounded by a group. He shot all four, fled the scene, and was called "the subway vigilante" by some media.

Formed since 1998, the Bakassi Boys of Nigeria were viewed as the frontmen in lowering the region's high crime when police were ineffective.

Formed in 1996, Mapogo a Mathamaga of South Africa provides protection for paying members of this group. Leaders have been charged with murder, etc.

21st century (present day)

Formed since 2000, Ranch Rescue is a still functioning organization in the southwest United States ranchers call upon to forcibly remove illegal aliens and squatters off their property.

In the early decade of 2000, after the September 11 attacks, Jonathan Idema, a self-proclaimed vigilante, entered Afghanistan and captured many people he claimed to be terrorists. Idema claimed he was collaborating with, and supported by, the United States Government. He even sold news-media outlets tapes that he claimed showed an Al Qaeda training camp in action. His operations ended abruptly when he was arrested with his partners in 2004 and sentenced to 10 years in a notorious Afghan prison, before being pardoned in 2007.

In Hampshire, England, during 2006, a vigilante slashed the tires of more than twenty cars, leaving a note made from cut-out newsprint stating "Warning: you have been seen while using your mobile phone". Driving whilst using a mobile is a criminal offence in the UK, but the law is little observed or enforced.

The Minuteman Project, a group created to deter illegal aliens and drug smugglers from entering the United States, was criticized for making citizen arrests.

Works of fiction

In cinema

The Hollywood vigilante had its development in the 1960s and 1970sat a time when the cop or detective story was popular and replacing the Western (genre) in popularity where vigilantism often occurred. There was a change in the film industry, change in self regulation in the industry, and change in American values all which opened up production to violent content without completely banning it or censoring it to viewers making way for a "vigilante cop." These cops are said to express unrelenting and uncompromising violence towards anyone who got in between both the vigilante cop and criminal that broke laws to accomplish their objectives.

A Stout Cord and a Good Drop by James Gaitis (Globe Pequot 2006) is a lengthy literary work of historical fiction based on a rigorous analysis of the facts associated with the Montana Vigilantes, the infamous Montana hanging spree of 1863-64, and the foundation of the Montana Territory in the midst of the American Civil War.

"The Vigils" are a fictional group in Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War. They are semi-private, meaning students and teachers know of them but do not speak of them. They run the school, giving students "assignments" that bend or break school rules and regulations.

In comic books

Vigilantism in the comic book arena has its basic concepts in several fictional genres, including stories published in dime novels and comic books. Many of the heroes of pulp fiction and comic booksuperheroes are vigilantes because they operate outside the law in order to combat lawlessness. In fact, virtually any superhero can be considered a vigilante if he is not acting under the direct authority of a law enforcement agency or other government body.

A key example is Watchmen, a DC Comicslimited series of the late 1980s written by Alan Moore, in which the superheroes that remained active after the series' Keane Act are portrayed by society and government as illegal vigilantes. Also of note is the DC comic book character of the 1940s and revived in the 1980s, the Vigilante.

See also

Jurisdiction - Modern centralized state jurisdiction, and the associated right to 'legal' punitive coercion, gradually evolved out of the decentralized, polycentric jurisdictional system of medieval feudal warrior-princes.